The source images are the 22,000some photos tagged with
“dcist” on Flickr. I was getting ready to do this with metapixel and a custom script, but today (via TUAW) I stumbled over the horribly-named MacOSaiX, which did exactly what I wanted. Neat.

All of this is occasioned by my Q+!U DC flag t-shirt getting worn-out enough to cross over into the “gymwear” category. Well, that and this video:

A new flag-themed t-shirt is in order, and doing something with Spreadshirt seems like a good idea. So I whipped up a couple of illustrator files — if you want them, here you go. I’ve certainly found myself wanting a high-quality vector version of the flag before. But then, I may have to come up with more graphics for DCist than the average internet user…

Has DailyLit made the rounds yet? If it has, I must’ve missed it. My friend Chris sent me the link — it’s a pretty neat idea. Pick from a list of public-domain works and have a daily installment of approachable size delivered to your inbox or RSS reader. If you’ve got time or the inclination to read the next one you can click on a link embedded in the entry — it’ll send you the next one right away. Cool.

My tendency to pointlessly refresh my RSS reader rather than pick up a book and engage with it is downright sad — maybe this’ll harness my bad habits for good.

Vegetate: surprisingly popular. I headed over this evening to wish Rob a happy 25th birthday and was amazed to see to see how packed the all-veggie restaurant became before I left. I’d just sort of assumed that this was another well-meaning progressive initiative that my superficial support would be unable to save from inevitable failure. You know, like Air America. Or affirmative action.

But no! The place was chock full of earnest vegetarians, vegans and perhaps even a few Breatharians. The bar only stocked a dozen or so bottles of liquor, but they were all plenty fancy. And the sadly lacking beer selection didn’t stop me from becoming adequately intoxicated.

Anyway, I was caught off guard. During their lengthy battle with Shiloh I had assumed that the business was somehow paying its rent with dividends earned on a well-justified sense of indignation. But I guess there are actually lot of people out there who don’t like eating meat. Well, good for them. But do me a favor and demand a few more types of beer to go with your not-meat.

Let me preface this by saying that I am sorry to be writing it. There is nothing I wish for more than our people to live in mutual prosperity and comity. However, I feel that I can no longer remain silent.

It’s an open secret that there are one or more undocumented mice living in this apartment. Although the arrangement is kept off the books, most of us adopt a live-and-let-live attitude with regard to it. You perform the vital burrowing and crumb-removal jobs that other apartment residents are unwilling or too large to do. In return we forbid our friend Jon from bringing his snakes over when he visits. The arrangement works well: perhaps someday your children will be able to live a better life as detectives, professional rescuers, or confidantes to exiled princesses. I’m even willing to fund the training and tiny anthropomorphic articles of clothing that they’ll need to pursue these dreams.

But let’s be frank: our peoples have something of an uneasy truce. You’re here whether I like it or not. Everyone knows that proposals to build better walls or do the dishes in a timely manner are little more than the lunatic ravings of the Pat Buchanans and Lou Dobbs of the world. But just because we can’t get rid of you doesn’t mean we can’t make your life more difficult. It’s in your best interest to work with us, not against us.

To be blunt, the events of the past 24 hours have been a grave breach of our unspoken covenant. You are not on the lease, and consequently you are not entitled to collect the services that are available to other apartment residents — in this case, mortuary services. We’re not running some rodent hospice here, you know.

In the future, please ensure that your loved ones expire somewhere off the premises, or at the very least not in my room. Further, in the event of an accidental death on-premises I require prompt notification — preferably by email (and in an appropriately apologetic tone). Finally — and I can’t stress this enough — embalming or cremation must be conducted promptly.

I am sure that this must be a difficult time for the family of the individual in question. Nevertheless, I must demand your prompt consideration and immediate compliance with these directives.

Oh yeah! I’m not issuing any more driver’s licenses, either. I don’t care what Geraldo said on O’Reilly.

It took me a hell of a long time to get around to fixing the problem with the circuit, but I finally got my Arduino relay interface/magic extension cord working — thanks in no small part to the help of a kind stranger who happened across my Flickr photostream.

I wrote it up a bit more over at labs — head there if you want more ruminations on the subject. But if you don’t want the full account, just check out the video below and take quiet satisfaction from my hypocritical descent into vlogging.

I’m a little late, but I’d feel even more like a jerk if I didn’t congratulate Yglesias on his new gig. The guy’s so ludicrously talented that it seems a little silly to bother acknowledging milestones in his inevitable march to the top of Mt. Pundit. Still, this is pretty great. Way to go, Matt.

Courtesy of a Saturday visit to the National Arboretum (or Arbotreeum, as one cellphone-using patron near us called it). It’s pretty nice out there, and easy to get to on the weekend thanks to the X6 bus. In fact, it’s so pleasant that you can easily forget how close you are to the Washington Times building.

Here I am fiddling with other people’s RSS, and I didn’t even realize that my own was broken. Sorry about that — the hax0ring killed all of cPanel’s redirects, making http://www.manifestdensity.net/feed end in a 404 rather than a redirection to Feedburner.